The Ballad of Reading Gaol Rewritten
by TerraAftershock
Summary: During an investigation, Hisoka breaks a serious taboo and is put on probation. Even as serious self-doubts and personal demons plague the staff of JuOhCho, someone begins a full-scale attack on the Ministry. Someone with hidden contacts within it.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I've decided to take my Ballad series and do a complete and total overhaul. I'm sorry if you enjoyed the last version, but to me it seems to fractured, too OOC, too convoluted. On a basic level, the situation is still pretty much the same. Hopefully, I'll be able to do a better job this time. Having been to Japan finally, I hope I can add some detail to the setting at least.

_**Chapter One**_

_**This hopeless feeling  
This fear of falling down  
But I'm not crashing now  
For all this bleeding  
It wasn't worth the sound  
A million screaming out loud**_

_**-- **__**Safe and Sound**__**, written by Gerard Way**_

The apartment was almost completely black and eerily still. Hisoka felt a prickling energy run up his arms and legs, but shook it off.

"You said you had information." He watched Adrian cross the room to open the curtains. A mass of neon lights poured through the window, tinting the room in countless colors.

"Yes, we'll get to that." Adrian turned. His eyes traced Hisoka head to toe, and the empath could feel lust radiating from him.

Panic flooded his limbs and exploded painfully in his chest. Adrian closed the distance between them. Hisoka couldn't move, his fight-or-flight response frozen. He felt a hand cradle the back of his skull, lips touch the pulse point just below his jaw. The foreigner smirked at the pulse's break-neck tempo.

"Hm? You're not frightened, are you?" By now, Adrian's lust was strong enough to drown out Hisoka's own terror, twisting up his torso in a tight spiral. _Stop. Fucking stop._ His overloaded empathy refused to cooperate.

Adrian pulled him away, guiding him towards the bedroom door. Hisoka's mind became a jumble, one thought overlapping onto another, onto another. He couldn't speak.

He was pulled inside, and the door shut with a low, echoing thud.

~*~

Tsuzuki glanced at his watch and frowned. 8 am. _Where the hell is Hisoka?_ He walked over to the hotplate set in the hotel room's table, heating up water for tea. After a few moments, a light signaled that it was hot enough. He stirred in a packet of instant tea, blew some of the steam away, and took a sip.

Between the hotplate and the TV set, the notes from their latest investigation were spread haphazardly. Today they'd be handing it off to another pair, but they'd hardly found any information at all. Eight kagema murdered, three weeks of investigation, and not a single fact to show for it. He glanced idly over the pages, wondering (as he always did) if Muraki was responsible. In the end, neither he nor Hisoka had been able to escape the doctor.

The phone rang, making Tsuzuki jump. He sighed, shook his head, and answered.

"Hello?"

"Good morning." The voice was that of someone younger, a teenager perhaps. "May I speak with Hisoka?"

"Who is this?"

"My name is Ryu Hiraoka. You met me last week. Do you remember?"

"Ah." One of their investigation contacts. Now he remembered. "_Ano_ ... Hisoka isn't here right now. He never came back last night, actually. He said he was with you. Do you know where he is?"

"With me? No, he wasn't. Not for long. He left before midnight, but he didn't say where he was going. We were gonna meet up this morning." Tsuzuki's frown deepened.

"_So desu ka?_" He wrapped the phone cord around his hand a few times absentmindedly. "Well, if you see him, will you tell him to hurry back?"

"I'll do that."

"Thank you." They hung up simultaneously. Tsuzuki walked immediately over to his luggage. He had just pulled out a fuda for tracking when the door opened.

~*~

Hisoka opened the hotel room door, feeling a rush of air conditioning. Tsuzuki looked up from where he'd been digging in his bag. Annoyance and worry tightened his face.

"Where were you?"

"Out." Hisoka walked numbly over to his bed and began to empty his pockets onto the bedside table. When he pulled out a large wad of yen, Tsuzuki grabbed it from him.

"What's this?" He counted it out, and his eyes grew large. "Where the hell did you get this much?!" Hisoka merely shrugged. Tsuzuki's face hardened, and he grabbed Hisoka's arm. "Hisoka-"

"Don't touch me!" Hisoka pulled away sharply. Tears started to fall, and his body shook. Without looking up at Tsuzuki, he locked himself in the tiny bathroom.

"Hisoka!" Tsuzuki shook the door. "Hisoka, I'm sorry. What's wrong? Hisoka?" The empath sat on the plastic floor, wrapping his knees tightly against himself and choking out small sobs. He couldn't bear to think about Tsuzuki, let alone see or talk to him. He felt dirty, sick, utterly alone and terrified.

"Hisoka, please come out."

Images flickered in his mind, memories of fear, of lust, of those cold, hungry gray eyes. _You let him. You let him. You let him, and you __**liked**__ it. Some part of you, at least, like it._ Each accusation felt like a blow.

With another sob, he teleported out.

~*~

Three days. Hisoka hadn't spoken to him in those three days since they'd returned. He wouldn't look at him. They'd written reports on their part of the investigation, and not once had Hisoka looked anyone in the eye. Wakaba, Watari, everyone had asked him what was going on, and each time Tsuzuki had to admit that he didn't know.

On the fourth day, a member of the Internal Investigation Bureau had knocked on his office door and informed him that he was needed in the office of Tatsuya Namikawa, the bureau chief. When he arrived, he saw Hisoka leaving, looking pale and ill. He tried catching his partner's eye, but to no avail.

"Come in, Tsuzuki-san." He obeyed.

Namikawa was a stern, older gentleman who'd been a World War II veteran. He glanced from the papers on his desk to Tsuzuki, adjusting his thick, square bifocals.

"There seems to be some inconsistencies in your reports. I'd like to ask you for a short explanation of the last two days of your investigation." Tsuzuki frowned, but nodded.

"We were getting to know some friends of the victims; a young man named Ryu Hiraoka and his younger friend Keitaro Honda. The night before we returned, Hisoka said he was with Ryu, getting information."

"How late was Kurosaki out?" Namikawa watched Tsuzuki over the tops of his glasses.

"Actually... he didn't return until eight the next morning."

"Did he tell you where he'd gone? Or what information he'd gathered?"

"No, sir. He didn't tell me anything." Clearing his voice, Namikawa went on.

"What was his behavior like? His mood?" Tsuzuki bit his lip for a second, trying to find a delicate way to put it.

"He seemed... distressed. Greatly distressed." When he didn't elaborate, Namikawa sighed.

"Do you know where he got the large sum of money?"

"No, sir."

"Do you know how much there was?"

"I counted 80,000 yen." Finally, Namikawa waved him off.

"Thank you, Tsuzuki-san. You may go."

"Sir, do you know what's going on? Hisoka never explained."

Namikawa hesitated, then said "I'll send you a copy of the main report once it's compiled."

Tsuzuki left, frustrated and completely in the dark.

~*~

"Muraki, where do you find ones like that?" Adrian was nearly purring with satisfaction. Over the phone, Muraki laughed.

"I'm glad to see you're enjoying your role."

"From your description of his personality, I didn't think he'd cooperate at all. I was pleasantly surprised."

"Did he cooperate?" Muraki said lightly. "I suppose he is an empath, after all..."

"Oh, is that why he was so... responsive?"

Muraki laughed again. "Don't let your libido distract you, Adrian. Stay on target, and you can borrow him whenever you want. You still have work to do."

"I suppose. Will we be meeting again to discuss work?"

"I'm afraid not. I have family duties to attend to." He picked up a photo on his desk, showing a baby boy in the arms of a charming young mother. "But perhaps you'd like to join? You'll be able to meet Cheya."

"Oh? Then perhaps I will... what does one bring to a first birthday party?"

**********************  
A/N: sorry for the lame ending. TT TT I wasn't sure what to do. But hopefully I didn't fail on the rest? Starting out is always the hardest part. (and ending, too...) anywhoozles, on a light note, 80,000 yen is roughly $800. Plot-wise, I'm hoping to add more with Watari, and lots of Oriya. So don't abandon me yet!

Please review! (be gentle with my ego!)


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I'm really nervous, but here goes!

_**Chapter Two**_

_**Come one, come all to this tragic affair**_

_**Wipe off that makeup**_

_**What sin is despair**_

_**So throw on the black dress, make sin with the lot**_

_**You might wake up and notice you're something you're not**_

_**-- **__**The End**__**, My Chemical Romance**_

The next day, Hisoka didn't show up at work. Tsuzuki didn't even try to work on the papers littering his desk. He opened the door to the break room and poked his head inside. Wakaba and Terazuma sat, their coffee and sweets practically untouched.

"Hey. Do you know where Hisoka is?" The partners exchanged looks.

"Didn't Hisoka tell you?" Wakaba asked hesitantly. Tsuzuki shook his head. "Well... you should probably talk to Konoe. He has the report." Tsuzuki bit his lip, but nodded and left. He walked to Konoe's office at the end of the hall, ignored the sign that told him to **PLEASE KNOCK**, and strode over to the oak desk.

"Kaicho, where is Hisoka?" Konoe blinked, then cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Kurosaki didn't say anything?"

"No! No one's told me anything. Namikawa said he'd give me a copy of the report, but didn't. Wakaba said I should ask you."

Konoe sighed, knit his fingers together and rested his chin on his hands. After a few moments, he pulled a paper from the in-box and handed it to Tsuzuki.

Tsuzuki scanned it quickly. His heart dropped into his stomach as his eyes latched onto one of the paragraphs. **For abandoning the mission and engaging in sexual relations with a mortal man, Kurosaki is on unpaid leave for one month. He is not allowed to leave Meifu, or to be inside the Ministry building during regular work hours.**

He looked at Konoe, but the chief hadn't moved, his eyes closed. Without a word, Tsuzuki dropped the paper onto the desk, and left.

Wakaba tried to stop him, but he shook his head and walked on. His feet carried him down to the familiar path to Hisoka's house. The pots of flowers Tsuzuki had given him were well cared for, but something about the house didn't seem right. He realized that they weren't, in fact, the flowers he'd given. The pots were the same, but the flowers had been replaced. By the door, he saw a bag containing the remnants of pulled chrysanthemums and snap dragons.

He paused outside the door before knocking. "Hisoka? Hisoka, may I please talk to you?"

There was a pause, a shuffle, then the door opened.

"Come in." His eyes were rimmed with dark purple shadows, their emerald color dulled. Tsuzuki followed him silently into the kitchen, where two hot cups of tea waited. "I knew you were coming."

Tsuzuki sat down and stared into his tea for a long time. Hisoka didn't push him. Before then, moments like this were comforting, calming. At the moment, tension filled the tiny kitchen, vibrating most fiercely between them.

"Ano... Hisoka... I was told what happened, but..." he paused, took a sup of tea, then continued. "Because of how distressed you seemed that day... I normally wouldn't pry, but..."

"You want to know if Adrian raped me?"

Tsuzuki hung his head. "Yes."

Hisoka gazed at his untouched cup of tea. "I don't know." The words seemed forced and agitated. "I don't know where my responsibility ends and his begins."

"I can't believe you're responsible."

"You don't want to." Tsuzuki looked across the table at his partner. The boy looked so fragile. He wanted desperately to hold him, but feared he might crush like a bird's egg.

"I'd like to think that I know you better than that."

"I'm not sure we know each other all that well."

Tsuzuki returned his gaze to the tea. His old instincts were trying to well up, telling him to leave, to act understanding and let his heart break yet again. But he refused. He could still remember his young partner clinging to him desperately, begging him to stay. _This isn't just about you anymore_.

"Hisoka..." Tsuzuki emptied his teacup and stood. "I won't bother you. Stay here and sort things out. Blame yourself, if it helps. I just..." He took a deep breath. "Remember that I'm always here."

~*~

The lab was a mess. Admittedly, it was always a mess, for which Tatsumi constantly berated the cheerful scientist. But today, science wasn't even the source of the chaos.

Hundreds of little stick figures crowded the counter tops. Instead of working together cheerfully, as they normally would, they fought to the death. Watari tried to peel the masses apart, only to be attacked himself.

"Watari!" He crossed the room and gripped the dazed man's arm. "What on earth is wrong with them?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Watari gazed around sorrowfully, watching as a group started using the Bunsen burners against their kin. "I think that the negativity of this past week has gotten to them."

It was a disturbing scene playing out Some figures were mere victims, others fought each other with pure hatred. Tatsumi knew why Watari was so aghast: he cared about his little creations greatly, and made no attempt to hide the fact. It was just his personality.

"I wonder if this is how God feels?" he asked dreamily. Tatsumi didn't have it in himself to answer.

~*~

"If you'll excuse me, I need some fresh air." Oriya smiled at Ukyo, who's face shone with pride.

"Oh, certainly. I think I'll join you. Kazutaka!" Muraki glanced up from his conversation with Adrian Melmouth. "Oriya and I are going onto the balcony." Her fiancé smiled and nodded.

The night air was clean and cool. Oriya shifted uncomfortably in his street clothes, and settled into a chair. Ukyo gently set little Kyoshi into Oriya's lap, then sat in a chair opposite.

Kyoshi looked up at Oriya with large black eyes, as if simultaneously afraid and impressed. Oriya smiled at the boy, and started to hum a traditional tune, bouncing Kyoshi on his knee in time with the rhythm.

"You're so good with children!" Ukyo said with a smile. "I'm impressed!"

"I've known many mothers, and babysat for most of them."

"Have you ever though of getting married? It might be nice to have a charming wife to help you run that restaurant of yours."

"I've chosen a different rout, I guess. At this point, I think marrying is out of the question." He glanced down at the boy, who'd taken a hold of a lock of long brown hair and started to chew on it.

"Kyoshi!" Ukyo laughed. "Don't do that!" Oriya lifted Kyoshi up to eye level.

"That can't taste good, _bozu._" He stood, holding the child close and rocking back and forth on his feet. Glancing down at the street below, he froze.

Someone watched him from below. The street lights added no detail, making the figure seem cut from a shadow. Having been noticed, it walked away.

"Mibu?" Ukyo looked at him, confusion etched across her round face.

"Ah... it's nothing. A trick of the light." Her face relaxed.

"Oh! You had me worried." Oriya smiled. He handed Kyoshi back to her.

They walked inside again, and Oriya refused to look back.

A/N: I feel a lot better about his chapter. I think I'm getting back into the swing of things! Per usual, please review.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry it took a while to update. I had a bit of writer's block, which was promplty cured by reading the book Ring by Koji (?) Suzuki. No, I'm not writing a wanna-be thing. Gimme a break!

Massive thanks to those who reviewed! Hopefully, this will get off the ground sooner or later. Some of these scenes are so hard to write. I hope I live up to your expectations, guys.

SkinReady: Yay! I succeded! ::laughs:: I'm glad to see a familiar face taking interest in this. I hope to see more reviews from you. Thanks!

_**Chapter Three**_

_**Even in the darkness, **_

_**Every color can be found**_

_**And every day of rain**_

_**Brings water flowing**_

_**To things growing in the ground**_

_**-- **__**Penny's Song**__**, from **__**Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog**_

Rain poured heavily, buckets of it running off the overhang of the houses in Meifu. Although rain usually calmed Hisoka down considerably, this weather did nothing to soothe his agitated mind.

He sat in his livingroom, watching water trail in a thick layer down the window. In his mind, he turned yesterday morning's conversation- if it could be called that- with Tsuzuki over in his mind.

He was at a loss to explain.

_"I can't believe that you're responsible."_ Why? Was it just the man's trusting nature that removed all responsibility on Hisoka's part? _Why is it that __**you**__ blame yourself?_ He knew that his empathy had been overloaded. So why was he responsible?

_I wasn't strong enough._ Tsuzuki was already strong enough to let Hisoka sort things out without too much interference, even though the man was well known for prying. He trusted his partner enough to figure things out on his own. Hisoka couldn't help but feel that he'd let his partner down.

Something flickered in the back of his mind. The feeling he'd had, watching Adrian walk towards him... it wasn't just fear. There was a certain loss of control that drove the fear forward, growing even as Adrian's painfully strong emotions overpowered his own. It was a burning fear that broke down his barriers, turning him into a sobbing wreck. He'd hated breaking down in front of Tsuzuki like that. He still felt the need to be the support in their dysfunctional relationship.

_Losing control..._ He brushed a hand over one bare arm, feeling his mind go fuzzy. With one finger, he began to trace his skin absent mindedly, trailing lightly up his arm. From his shoulder, he moved across an invisible line just below the clavicle to the center, then down-

When his finger was directly over his heart, he froze. A burning sensation exploded inside him, spreading over his bare skin. The red marks ran from that centerpoint outward, archaic characters blazing against his skin. He clenched his teeth in pain.

Then something happened that he'd never seen before. His body began to glow, a fiery evanescence pouring off his skin. Pain burned through him, agony like he'd never felt before. It felt- and looked- like he was on fire.

His mind went numb and blank. He rushed out into the rain, hearing it hiss as it evaporated against his skin. A scream tore it's way out of his throat, and many followed it. He dropped to the ground. Writhing and screaming, he watched as the world around him seemed to catch fire, regardless of the rain. Somewhere beyond him, he thought he could see Tsuzuki watching him, empty eyes flowing with tears, just like Kyoto.

_"I'm so tired..."_

~*~

"I'm so tired..." Watari whined, resting his head on the break room table. Under his head, a file sat waiting to be opened. The file's tab bore the name _Saki Shidou_, and on the cover was stamped the phrase **UNSOLVED**.

"I know." Wakaba said sympathetically. "Cold cases are the worst."

"What I want to know," Tsuzuki said, cupping his chin in his hand, "is why I have to go with you."

Watari lifted his head and took a sip of coffee. "There haven't exactly been mounds of requests for me as a partner. Besides, you have way too much time on your hands."

"This from the man with time enough to spike the break room coffee." Tatsumi cut in.

"Tatsumi, you wound me to the quick."

"Hmph."

"Anyway..." The scientist thumbed through the papers. "This looks to be a pretty convoluted case." He looked at the attatched photo. Saki Shidou, high school senior. The boy was smiling in a way some people might see as warm, but it looked a bit smarmy in Watari's opinion. "Kid goes missing, and next thing we know he's labled as an AWOL spirit."

"It sounds pretty cut-and-dry to me..." Wakaba peered over Watari's shoulder.

"Not at all." Tatsumi replaced his glasses and pulled the file over. "According to the last investigation, there are no records to show that a Saki Shidou ever lived in Japan. No birth records, no death records, no records of any kind. Every trace of him has been deleted."

"Surely someone has to have known the kid." Watari glanced over the stats sheet. Beside name, age, and physical traits, nothing was written down.

"If they do, they're not talking. And coroner's records show no instance of a John Doe fitting Shidou's description."

For a while, no one spoke. Watari skimmed the contents of the report looking for a starting point, any clue that they could research.

"Absolutely nothing..." he muttered.

Tsuzuki took the photograph and looked it over. His eyebrows knitted together. "Why does this guy look familiar?" He had the distinct feeling that he'd seen those eyes somewhere else.

"Hang on..." Watari flicked through the papers again. "Even JuOhCho doesn't have any files?"

"Apparently not. The Gushoshin are investigating the possibility of a break-in."

"My head hurts!" Watari dropped his head back onto the table. 003 settled onto his head, nesting into his hair.

The door opened, and Konoe motioned to Tsuzuki.

"I need to talk to you, Tsuzuki." Tsuzuki frowned, but rose and followed the chief out into the hallway. As they walked, Konoe explained in a low voice. "This will seem a bit strange, but I need you to keep this quiet, for Kurosaki's sake."

Tsuzuki froze. "Did something happen to Hisoka?"

Urging him along, Konoe nodded. "Something seems to have broken Hisoka's control on his empathy, and... well, he's a bit of a mess. He's fallen into some sort of coma. The last thing we need is for everyone to get excited or concerned and do more damage. And..." here, Konoe hesitated. "... he was found covered in blood, but it wasn't his own."

They'd reached the infirmary. Pushing open a door, he gestured for Tsuzuki to go in, but he himself stayed outside.

Hisoka lay still and silent on the bed, an IV in his arm. Tsuzuki walked up to the bedside, brushing a hand over his partner's arm. Trying to clear his mind of it's swarm of questions, he forced a smile.

"Hey, Hisoka." Looking down at his partner's sleeping face, he felt the sudden urge to give him a kiss. _Just like that day we met,_ he mused. He brushed a few strands of hair away from Hisoka's face, and touched his lips to the boy's forehead.

_Get better, Hisoka._

~*~

Detective Asakawa's lips had pressed into a thin line. He felt like he'd walked onto the set of a Scion Sono film, and the longer he spent at the scene, the less real it all felt.

The victim, a foreigner, was slumped against the wall, the back of his skull blown out and it's contents spread over the walls and man wore a look of shock, blood running from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. He was clutching a shirt that looked like it belonged to a much younger man. Scattered like leaves over the apartment was a large amount of money. One of the junior officers counted it- 80,000 yen in all.

"His name was Adrian Melmouth." The young cop said, glancing over his small notebook. "He doesn't have any family contacts, but in his wallet we found the business card of a certain Dr. Muraki, a matchbook from a restaurant in Kyoto called Kokakuro, and a membership card to a host club in Ginza."

Asakawa sighed. "Man... Something like this just had to come along before my time off."

The younger officer continued. "Sometime before the murder, some neighbors recall seeing a teenage boy enter the apartment, but apparently that wasn't uncommon at all."

"Surprise me. So, did they describe the kid?"

"Yeah. They said he was really thin, looked like a doll. Green eyes."

"Another _gaijin_?"

The young man merely shrugged.

~*~

The world around him was white- no distinction between ground and sky, no sign of what was keeping him up. Hisoka looked around, feeling a bit off-kilter in these strange surroundings. _So when did I fall into __Advent Children__?_ he wondered. He vaguely recalled watching the movie sometime that week, because he'd been stuck at home. _Why wasn't I at work?_ He tried to put his thoughts in order, but failed. Whatever he'd been doing for the las week or more had vanished from his mind.

Suddenly, he felt a tug on the back of his shirt. Spinning around, he looked down to see a small child. She wore a kimono, and her eyes were as green as his own.

"Nii-chan, come on! I wanna show you around!"

"Wha- what is there to see?" he asked, looking around again. Still, there was nothing.

"I gotta show you!" She said, frustrated. Grabbing his hand, she started to pull him away. He followed, but couldn't help asking

"What's your name?"

The girl smiled back at him.

"I'm Hisoka!"

A/N: Yay! It's becoming easier to write now. Anyway, pardon the fan references. Has anyone seen any Scion Sono films? His most famous are "Suicide Club" (Jisatsu Circle) and "Noriko's Dinner Table". As for Advent Children... I guess it's because I'm going to see Advent Children Complete tomorrow. Or maybe it was the video I saw for the Yami opening song, Eden, that was made with clips from Advent Children....

Anyways, per usual please review!


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